Taslima Nasreen tweets photoshopped image, gets trolled

Controversial author Taslima Nasreen was slammed by social media users on Friday after several fake news-busting websites pointed out she had tweeted a poorly photoshopped image of a Muslim man purportedly serving liquor to a man in saffron robes.

The image, which shows an elderly Muslim man wearing a skull cap pouring what appears to be liquor into a plastic cup held by the man in saffron robes was tweeted by Nasreen on December 6, Hindustan Times reported.

The image appeared to be an obvious fake as the liquid in the cup is clear, and markedly different from the amber colour of the whisky. There was no text in the tweet, which has not been deleted by the Bangladeshi author.

Social Media Hoax Slayer, a website that closely tracks fake news items, first pointed out that the image was photoshopped in a post titled: “Taslima Nasreen tried her hands on Photoshop, changed water to alcohol.”

The website also posted the original image, which showed the Muslim man offering the other man some water from a plastic bottle bearing the Kinley logo.

BoomLive, another website that tracks fake news, said in a post that Nasreen had “performed a miracle of sorts (by) turning water into booze”.

Author and columnist Salil Tripathi joked in a tweet: “Is there any doubt that maybe she’s divine?”

This is not the first time Nasreen, who has been living in Delhi in self-exile for the past five years, has stirred a controversy with her tweets. Hours after the worst mass shooting in US history – the killing of 58 people by white gunman Stephen Paddock in Las Vegas on October 1 – she had tweeted: “Most probably it is a Muslim terrorist inspired by the ISIS. It’s the reason why ppl hate Muslims.”

Nasreen subsequently deleted the tweet after a barrage of criticism.

In September, Nasreen, who fled Bangladesh in the early 1990s after “receiving death threats” for her anti-Islamic books, criticized the Sheikh Hasina government for giving shelter to Rohingya Muslims fleeing Myanmar.

In an interview with the Arnab Goswami-helmed Republic TV, Nasreen claimed that “Muslim fanatics” in Bangladesh were “happy” about Ronhinyas taking refuge in the country.

Nasreen had said “many people in Bangladesh didn’t want them ( Rohingyas) to come to Bangladesh because those Rohingyas are drug smugglers and also they are committing crimes in Bangladesh.”

“I am glad that Bangladesh has sheltered 400,000 Rohingya refugees and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visited them and cried for them . But I ask if those persecuted people were Hindus, Buddhists, Christians or Jewish, would Bangladesh have sheltered them? I don’t think so. I think some Muslim fanatics in Bangladesh wanted Rohingya Muslims to be sheltered in Bangladesh. So the Prime Minister decided to shelter them. May be she thought of votes,” she said.